Maddie - Club Volleyball Winter 2022

 Maddie tried out for Club ball through a few different local programs in October. We were very hopeful for a club season. Unfortunately, Club ball is very competitive for limited spots. Even worse, Maddie's age group has a lot of girls who play and it is hard to get a foothold in this sport if you aren't selected for these teams early on (younger years). 

Just before the deadline (literally a few hours!), we received an offer email from Platform Elite (the program that Maddie wanted first options with). We were thrilled and giddy with joy! So proud of Maddie!

The team she played with had 2 coaches who were students at one of the local colleges. The coaches went home for the winter break so Maddie's team didn't play in any tournaments until early February (most teams start in early January). When we did start playing, we traveled for most tournaments - Iowa City, West Liberty, Marion, Des Moines. We had two tournaments in Bettendorf, which is always nice. Traveling in winter is never fun. 

Our first traveling tournament was in Iowa City - we woke up to a bit of snow on the ground. Luckily, the roads cleared up as soon as we hit Interstate 80 and were clear until we hit Iowa City. 

After a really hard start to the day (coaches were really late, due to a car issue and the team just wasn't working together well in pool play), they came together and took 1st place in the silver bracket! What an exciting end to the day!

A month later, we were on the road again to West Liberty, IA. It was an overall good day of play for their team. Matt recorded quite a few videos of Maddie serving and setting (she is number 10). As the setter, she is typically the 2nd touch - setting the ball up for the hitter. 

We played in the Gold Championship Game - Winning game one 25-20, Losing game two 23-25 and losing the tie breaker 10-15. It was a hard loss. They played their hearts out!

Just after we got back from our Spring Break vacation, Matt, Maddie & I headed to Des Moines (the last weekend of March) for Regionals. We enjoyed the drive to Des Moines (3 hours) - albeit a *bit* windy. We found a place to eat lunch, shopped at a local Goodwill and then headed to Drake University, where we were scheduled to play that afternoon.

Maddie - libero tracking during one of the team's working games.

Day 1, pool play, was very rough on the team. We weren't synched as a team. There was arguing and attitudes. It wasn't pretty. 

We woke up Sunday morning and drove to an art display/park downtown, visited Krispy Kreme to splurge on some fun donuts, then shopped at another Goodwill before grabbing lunch and heading to RecPlex for a second day of play.

Luckily, Day 2 was a new day and the team came ready to play. 

We won a few and lost a few. I'm not quite sure how we ended up overall on the weekend, but Sunday ended with a win, which is always a good way to end a tournament!

We loaded up and headed for home - only stopping for dinner on the way. A long but good weekend away.

I wrote this on my Facebook page following her final tournament. 

Yesterday (actually this past week) was hard. We drove to Marion, IA for Maddie's final club volleyball tournament. She already determined that this would be her last season. As much as she ABSOLUTELY LOVES the game, it is very time & energy consuming. It is hard - mentally, emotionally and physically. There are many politics to deal with - she seemed to be on the short end of that often. This club season was good for her. She was bumped up to a 17u team (she is 16u). They were a great group of girls who (for the most part) just wanted to play. Some tournaments they all clicked and they kicked butt...other tournaments they were off and they got their butts kicked.

We don't know what her future will hold. Maybe she will change her mind come next Fall. Maybe she will look into options outside of high school and club ball. What she chooses, she will set her mind to and will succeed. That's who she is.

She's come a long way from her little 6th grade self who taught herself (with some help from Matt & Youtube videos) how to play the game.

She's learned multiple positions over the years to help coaches as they needed gaps filled (in the final tournament in Marion, she was a defensive middle back). She was one of the most consistent servers on every team. She always looked for ways to help her coaches.

A big thank you to Matt for driving my parents to Marion so that they could see her final tournament. They were some of her biggest cheerleaders!

They ended the season on a sad note. They played well in pool play but lost most of their afternoon games. They were close games, but it just wasn't going to happen that day. There were lots of tears as the girls said goodbye and hit the road for home. This would be their last time together as a team. For Maddie, this was the end of it all. Our family shed tears for that reason.

Maddie - I am so very proud of the thousands of hours you poured your heart into the sport. Many smiles, laughs, cheer & tears, bumps & lots of bruises - all worth it. Your hard work has brought you to this moment in life and you will go far because of this dedication. I have no doubt!